Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 21 June (HL865), which stated “the UK Endorsement Board has interpreted its statutory functions in accordance with the Companies Act and the provision in Section 11 of the Interpretation Act 1978”, whether they will issue a correction to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 20 May (HL31) which stated “The UK Endorsement Board is only required to assess international accounting standards against the criteria in Regulation 7(1) in SI 2019/685".

The Government does not intend to amend its response to HL31 and does not believe that the two statements quoted in the question are in contradiction with one another. The UK Endorsement Board (UKEB) is required to assess international accounting standards (IAS) against the criteria in Regulation 7(1). This also requires the UKEB to have regard to the matters set out in Regulation 7(2). The interpretation of these functions is considered by the UKEB within the context of the Companies Act. However, the UKEB is not required to assess IAS against individual sections of the Companies Act.